Chimps'r' not us: latest brain/language development theory (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, August 08, 2019, 12:54 (1935 days ago) @ David Turell

Dhw: Nobody knows why there was a cultural leap some 70,000 years ago (or whenever), but there is no argument over the obvious fact that the apparatus was in place approx. 300,000 years ago (or maybe even 600,000), the apparatus was always in use, and language has evolved from the comparatively simple to the extremely complex. Where we disagree is over your claim that the apparatus was dabbled by God in advance of any need for it, whereas I propose that whenever it changed, it did so in response to pre-sapiens'need for more complex forms of communication, just as the pre-whale’s legs changed to flippers when required to perform new actions. On this we shall have to differ.

DAVID: So you recognize the gap in time between available brain mechanism and learning to use it. A great advance in your thinking. Of course you won't admit God did it by providing the new brain. Talk about rigid/fixed thinking.

dhw: When I say “the apparatus was always in use” (now bolded), I do not mean there was a gap in time before it was used. The word “always” precludes any possibility of a gap. I do not believe there was any time when pre-sapiens and early sapiens did not use the apparatus at their disposal in order to communicate. And it wasn’t a new brain – it was a development of the old brain. And why should I “admit” that your theory is right and my alternative proposal is wrong? Do you honestly believe that the whole world accepts your theory that your God changes anatomies in advance of any need for change?

DAVID: Lots of the world is on my side. Of course the big brain, once present, took time to learn to be used. But still big 'old' brain first and use second. You provide non-rebuttals.

It took time for the big brain, once present, to progress from simple language to the complexities of modern language, but I have no doubt that every generation of homo that possessed the big brain of modern humans would have used it. How else would they have communicated? The issue on which we differ is how and when the earlier smaller brain became the big brain. You say God did a dabble to enlarge the brain, which wasn't used for thousands of years, and I propose that pre-sapiens required more complex forms of communication and the brain cells responded to the new need by enlarging the brain through the new uses (like pre-whale legs turning into whale flippers through new uses). But of course once the brain was in place, it continued to be used right up to the present day!